A private family is seeking a professional housekeeper to join their household on a full-time, live-out basis, normally working 5 days per week.
The job of the housekeeper is to support the family by running the domestic aspects of the main home, a further house on the estate, and to provide similar services in other houses where the family is staying as required. The objective is to help make the family's life easier by dealing with most aspects of running a household.
The ideal candidate will have excellent attention to detail, take pride in maintaining a beautiful home to the highest standards, and understand the importance of absolute confidentiality and respect for the family's privacy.
The family consists of two principal adults in residence, with 8 adult children, their partners, grandchildren and family friends who visit and stay.
The Principals do not have any pets, although children and friends bring dogs on visits.
The housekeeper will report directly to the Principals. At times when the Principals are away from home, the housekeeper will liaise with the Estate Manager and the family Principal Assistant.
Key Responsibilities:
To be responsible for the day-to-day management of the main home and a further house on the family estate and to support the family domestically. Responsibilities cover general housework and household management and include:
General Housework:
• Cleaning and maintaining the houses to a very high standard;
• Ensuring the houses are always presented beautifully and ready for the family and their guests;
• Laundry, ironing and wardrobe care, including delicate and high-value garments;
• Changing bed linen and maintaining bedrooms and bathrooms to a high standard;
• Careful handling and organization of household items, furnishings and personal belongings;
• Preparation of some meals to a very good standard;
• Monitoring stocks and shopping for food and normal household supplies;
• Dealing with household rubbish and recycling;
• Cleaning and preparing several log fires and bringing logs in as necessary; and
• Any other normal tasks needed to run the houses.
General Household Management:
• Liaising with the Estate Manager on maintenance of household appliances such as washing machines, Aga, log burners and chimneys. This includes tracking when maintenance is due, booking the appropriate people, arranging access and supervision and checking that the necessary work has been done;
• Arranging domestic repairs either directly for simple problems or liaising with the Estate Manager for more complex jobs;
• Dealing with parcel deliveries and visitors particularly when the family is away; and
• Reporting maintenance and management issues to the Estate Manager.
General:
• Working with the family Principal Assistant and office to co-ordinate activities;
• Assisting with preparation for family occasions, occasional evening parties or weekend events;
• To provide support for the family, their visitors and, if required, with social events;
• Undertaking other reasonable household duties as required;
• Identifying tasks that need to be done and dealing with them; and
• When the Principals are absent from the household for a significant period and/or the household duties are in hand, the housekeeper may be asked by the Estate Manager to help out in the local café or with rental properties owned by the family.
Candidate Profile
The successful candidate will have the following characteristics:
Essential Attributes
• Comfortable with maintaining confidentiality;
• Excellent cleaning and laundry skills;
• High standard of food preparation and cooking skills;
• Strong attention to detail and high standards of presentation;
• A calm, discreet and professional manner;
• Reliability, punctuality and strong work ethic;
• A clean driving license (3 points would be acceptable);
• Comfortable driving the family vehicle to run errands;
• Basic IT skills to run a household (food shopping apps, excel spreadsheets, shared job lists);
• Able to pick up new skills and tasks;
• An organiser as well as hard working; and
• Comfortable with dogs and a willingness to do some dog walking on occasions.
Desirable Attributes:
• Previous experience working as a private housekeeper, preferably within a private family;
• Flexibility over hours and locations;
• Willing to consider travelling with the family if required; and
• Experience in Café hospitality.